TERMS OF REFERENCE
ABOUT SPARK MICROGRANTS
Spark Microgrants believes in a world where everyone lives with dignity and determines their own positive future. Spark has pioneered a poverty alleviation model in East Africa that draws on evidence from ultra poor graduation and community-driven development approaches, known as the facilitated collective action process (FCAP). The FCAP combines a cash grant plus facilitated community meetings and trainings to catalyze improved livelihoods, stronger social cohesion, and gender and social inclusion. Spark is partnering with NGO and Government partners to scale adoption and impacts for rural communities - on their own terms. Read more about our Approach, Impact and Values on our website.
BACKGROUND
Spark Microgrants is preparing to implement a local governance and development pilot in Malawi this year. Under this pilot, villages will receive block grants of approximately USD 16,000 (MWK 28 million) to finance community-selected subprojects identified through Village Action Plans (VAPs). Villages will be responsible for directly implementing their selected subproject and usually do so through a combination of local procurement and own labor and select contracting for specialized services.
These subprojects are expected to include:
The grant will be disbursed in two tranches, allowing communities to invest in two different projects over a two-year period. The value of each tranche is to be finalized, but has historically been set at a 60/40 split, equivalent to:
To validate whether this grant size is appropriate for the types of envisioned activities, Spark seeks to conduct a cost verification study to estimate the current market costs of implementing these types of subprojects at the village level.
SCOPE OF WORK
The objective of this assignment is to assess and validate the current costs of key village-level investments in the target districts, in order to determine whether the proposed total block grant and size of grant tranches are adequate. Using the study findings, Spark may revise the total amount of the grant and/or the amount of each tranche.
The consultant will collect recent and reliable cost data for the priority subproject types, including:
Data should reflect realistic, village-level implementation costs, including materials, labor, and transport. The consultant will triangulate data from multiple sources, including:
Spark will provide recent cost data, including detailed activity budgets, for i) livestock rearing and ii) village savings and loan associations, based on its implementation experience. The consultant should include these two subproject types in their analysis but are not required to collect additional data.
Geographic Coverage
Analysis
REQUIREMENTS
Proposal Requirements
Interested consultants should submit:
OTHER INFORMATION
Job Location:
Flexible, within Malawi
Start and duration of support:
Beginning as soon as possible and lasting between three to four weeks from contract start. The scope is envisioned to require a maximum of 15 working days.
Application end date: On a rolling basis, we reserve the right to close this recruitment process at any time.
Follow the Link to Apply: https://sparkmicrogrants.bamboohr.com/careers/175
Schedule of Deliverables and Timelines
Deliverables Anticipated due date
Job details are sourced from the employer's original posting.
Open job postingAbout the company
Spark Microgrants is a non-profit organization that provides funding and support to grassroots initiatives. They empower local communities to design and implement their own solutions to pressing social and economic challenges.